Distribution Warehouse Planning Consultancy Advice

Dordon, North Warwichshire

Client: Hodgetts Estates

Instruction: Planning Consultancy & Industrial Agency

Chase & Partners were first instructed in August 2012 to provide planning consultancy advice to promote a new 18 ha mixed use industrial warehouse development on greenfield agricultural land in Dordon, North Warwickshire.

Through the submission of numerous written representations on various stages of the emerging Local Plan, Chase & Partners skilfully managed to establish the site as future employment land within the emerging Site Allocations document. This approach was coupled with a series of meetings with the Local Planning Authority Forward Planning and Development Control teams to build a constructive working relationship, which would eventually lead into pre-application discussions.

At the same time, we advised the client to instruct leading Counsel to provide an overarching legal opinion on the planning case for development of the site, taking into consideration any inherent threats and potential pitfalls which could undermine an application. This approach was adopted given the complex nature of the proposals, which would involve a new all-movements signal controlled access junction onto the A5 trunk road. This timely advice allowed the client to proceed with the application with confidence, given the significant cost involved.

In June 2013 a planning application was submitted for an industrial warehouse development at the site, comprising over 650,000 sq ft of new B8, B1(c) and B2 floorspace. The application allowed for three large B8 Warehouse units of 320,000 sq ft, 190,000 sq ft and 75,000 sq ft with a maximum height of 21m, as well as numerous smaller B1(c) and B2 units, on six purpose built development plateaus. The application also incorporated a new all-movements signal controlled access junction and internal layout road, associated site drainage attenuation measures and hard and soft landscaping. Chase & Partners managed the submission of the planning application from design inception, Environmental Impact Assessment screening and scoping, instruction of numerous sub-consultants, public consultation exhibition, detailed design of the scheme and preparation of the various documents that formed the submission itself, in addition to writing the Supporting Planning Statement which set out the planning case. At the time, Chase & Partners also provided agency advice on the industrial warehouse market within the West Midlands, which informed the final design of the scheme and supported the planning case.

In October 2013, North Warwickshire Borough Council Planning & Development Board voted unanimously in favour of the proposals. Since the resolution to grant, Chase & Partners has led negotiations on the scope and form of the associated Section 106 Agreement. In this regard, a much simplified approach was adopted to speed up the process while ensuring the agreement was legally sound and not susceptible to legal challenge. Consent was issued in April 2014, listing various conditions that the planning team will discharge over the coming months.